Letters to Jack & Audrey: The Longest Day

Jack,

Yesterday we spent most of the day at home. I was working on cleaning the kitchen and Daddy was working on homework and you worked on getting to know all your toys up close and personal.

It was a very long morning full of addressing one thing after another off my mental checklist.
You:

built a tower as tall as yourself

drove all your cars into a massive array across the front room floor

built a "house" out of your big legos and then made a BIG car out of legos

parked your matchbox cars in the house

colored

Played "money" and "tickets" with your Spongebob Squarepants cards which consists of you running in circles carrying cards until they fall all over the floor and you go to find another handful.

Played with sand in your little sandtable

I helped you make a Jello tray to cut shapes out of, but it wasn't solid enough so it didn't work and you ended up snacking on the gooey mess (Martha Steward I am NOT!)

blew up balloons of every color and you threw them around the rooms kicking and throwing them.

This eventually turned into "bonking" people with the balloons because... that's entertainment, right?

After awhile, it was time for nap. I was dragging by this point and needed it as much as you did. I put you down.

As I went downstairs the theme song for Spongebob Squarepants was being sung loudly and following me down the stairs. It was a happy sound, though, so I wasn't too worried. I figured you would quietly entertain yourself until you gently drifted off to sleep.

Yes, people have said I live in a fantasy world.... Why do you ask?

Basically, you called for me the entire naptime and I feel horrible, but every cry brought with it a wave of panic in my head and I found myself thinking oh, my god, please please please please go to sleep! Let that be the last thing I hear before you fall asleep. I really need you to sleep! Please please please please sleep!

I needed it so bad that I was in denial and silent wishing for the next hour. You never fell asleep so I finally gave up and brought you downstairs. You were cute, but your patience was short because you were tired.

You wanted me to blow up the rest of your balloons, but I knew that when these balloons popped, you would want more and there wouldn't be any if we blew them all up now, so I tried to explain it, I said no, and you followed me throwing the not-blown-up balloons at me saying "I WANT IT!" I kept telling you that you needed to be nice or you were going to be in big trouble, but it was almost like it was outside of your choice because you were so tired as to be temporarily insane.

You yawned through dinner, but by the time Daddy and I were headed out the door to go to a co-workers birthday celebration leaving you with Grandma Rose - you had a second wind and were running in circles around the downstairs yelling YAAAAAAAAAAH! at the top of your voice.